Men and women display certain common basic characteristics in business friendships and non-romantic partner relationships.
If at all feasible, men like to keep their distance from or avoid fighting. If people avoid the problem, they are less likely to return to it later to address it. Men respond to conflict "consistent with their stereotype of being forceful and task-oriented" when they don't try to avoid it or when they begin discussion about it. They have a proclivity for the opposing style.
Women, in keeping with their gender stereotype of being community and relationship-oriented, react to dispute in more conciliatory ways. They choose a conciliatory or conceding style. Women are more likely than men to hang on to unpleasant emotions like sadness, rage, and disappointment for longer periods of time. Men want women to talk about what they're going through right now, and women want men to talk about what they're going through right now.
Women are more likely to criticize than males, while men are more likely to stonewall.
In the workplace, there isn't much of a difference in how men and women deal with disagreement.
